Responding to a Bad Catering Experience

No ones likes to hear a bad review, but they don’t always have to be so detrimental to your business that you can’t recover – either as the individual involved or as the overall brand.

Bad reviews are often a tough conversation to have, but they are necessary. Whether a small mistake or a much larger faux-pas, negative reviews can actually help you improve your business processes so you get it right. And a customer is more likely to show a positive reaction to efforts to improve on your part, than if you were to completely disregard their feedback.

With social sites like Yelp being a key source of information for those looking to find your restaurant, or even get information about the level of your catering service, it is important to pay attention to all of those comments – good or bad. And don’t hide behind them either – wherever someone chooses to share their comments with you (whether Facebook, Twitter, a blog post comment, or a review site like Yelp) be sure to respond in some way. It doesn’t have to be public either – you can choose to contact them personally and still resolve the issue before moving onto longer-term improvements.

You can even jump right to the issue by reaching out to your customers for any and all feedback – and let them answer any way they wish. When you deliver your catering orders, for example, you can leave behind customer comment forms, and a Catering Sales Manager should always follow up with a call once the order is completed. When you appear open to criticism, customers are far more responsive, and likely to share information with you in a positive way, no matter the quality of their experience.

In addition, as a Catering Director, Catering Sales Manager or Catering Sales Representative, you might want to take a trip with one of your delivery drivers and experience the side of the order process that you may not often get to see. This not only allows you to do your follow up on-site, but it gives you an added perspective to the process, and a chance to have some one-on-one time with your delivery staff, who may, in fact, have their own suggestions for improvement. Check out Tracy’s blog from last year about Seeing With Your Own Eyes for more detail as to how you can do this.

Improvement is always important in any channel process – you are here to serve your catering customers, and should always be striving for excellence. No, hearing about a bad experience isn’t fun, but yes, it can have a silver lining!

To get you started on the road to success, enjoy our Catering Quality Assurance Checklist and make sure that you take pride in every step of your order process: